meltdowns and canceling thousands of flights this year, spirit, american and southwest say they re ready. southwest and american even offering incentives to employees to work over the holidays though, employee response has been skeptical. american pilots rejected the offer. this is the new normal air traffic has more than doubled from a year ago today and at the same time, airlines were asking staff to retire. it s not as easy as pulling them back from retirement there are systemic issues going on. throw in the coming storm on the east coast and airline delays could quickly start to mount but the vast majority of americans will be driving to their thanksgiving gatherings, paying $3.41 a gallon on average for gas, the most since thanksgiving 2013. a 200-mile road trip will cost roughly $27 compared to $17 last year on the jersey turnpike today, the early birds were getting ahead of the traffic. with the